Speech & Language:  This week we will be practicing and reviewing the sound on initial /L/.  We will be making lambs and our snack of lemon bars will be contributed by Maxine!

This week we will be having a lot of fun learning about dinosaurs!  The children have been so interested in dinosaurs so we decided to make some art projects, study them and work in partner-pairs to become dinosaur experts!  We will be writing stories in our journals, playing math games and reading games and enjoying our last "normal" week together in Room K.  Next week is filled with special activities.

Remember, the homework for this week is to practice your talent for the last day of school, read a lot and enjoy your friends!  I hope you have enjoyed looking at all of the great work your children have done this year in Room K.  We are very proud of all they have accomplished!

Here is our schedule for the week:
Tuesday: Speech & Language
Wednesday:  Let's Find Out!  Yoga, Council, P.E.
Thursday:  Gardening (with Sarah), Art Trek, Book Tasting in the Library
Friday:  Morning Assembly, Science, P.E.

Speech & Language:  This week we will be practicing the initial blend /st/.  We will be stringing stars and our snack of strawberries will be contributed by Henry!

Sharing:  This week the Tiggers will share!

Speech & Language:  This week we will be re-visiting the sound of initial /s/.  We will make sock puppets!
Sharing:  This week the Piglets will share.

Thank you all for the amazing Teacher Appreciation week!  It was the best week I've experienced in 39 years of teaching and Ms. Samm, Ms Youmna and I felt so loved and appreciated.  The assembly on Friday was so special for all of the teachers and staff.  I really want you to know how much the handmade cards, flowers, and fruit meant, not to mention the delicious treats, breakfast and lunch.  I will have to go back on my diet and exercise regime after all of that delicious appreciation!

We are busy preparing for Open House, Thursday from 5:30-7:00.  This is a special evening for the whole family to come to see the wonderful work your children have been doing all year.  Our room has transformed into an ocean, our caterpillars are in their chrysalsis' slowing transforming into butterflies, when you visit you will be able to read the amazing fairy tale books your children have created and you can observe the sea life animal research projects we have been working on with research partners, parent helpers, big buddies and teachers.  This has been a transformative year for our Room K students and we are so proud of all they have learned.

The children have been practicing good manners and are excited to be earning their crowns!  It is wonderful to see them practice the 3 B's, using kind, polite words, maintain focus while working and playing safely and inclusively on the playground.  I hope you are seeing them practice at home too!

This week we will be starting Benchmark Unit 9, week 4.  We are continuing to learn about healthy food and when food comes from in addition to reinforcing math skills, and reading goals.  We are working in our Rhyming Books and enjoying reading games, sight words and Lexia.  I will be assessing the children this week using Educational Software for Guided Instruction and next week the Kindergarten students will be having their final asssessment using DIBELS (Diagnostic Indicator of Basic Early Literacy Skills).

We are continuing our Math Journals and the children are enjoying writing their numbers, practicing addition and subtraction.

Our Schedule:
Monday:  Big Buddies
Tuesday:  Speech & Language
Wednesday:  Let's Find Out! magazine, Yoga, Council, P.E.
Thursday:  Library, Open House!
Friday:  Morning Assembly, School Tour (Open House displays), Story Pirates, Science, P.E.

I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Mother's Day!
Best wishes,
Mrs. W.

Speech & Language:  This week we will practice the sound of initial /R/. We will make a rainbow and our snack of raspberries will be contributed by Asa!  We will have our lesson after lunch this week due to Ms. Youmna's schedule.

Sharing:  This week the Winnie-the-Poohs will share about an upcoming family trip or a trip they have recently taken.  Remember, this is our last sharing time this year.

Thank you to Dina for coming in Friday to help the Room K students create an art project for the Silent Auction!  A huge thank you to Sarah for coordinating the Silent Auction items and to Stacey for helping Sarah with this huge job.  It was great to see so many involved parents at the Auction supporting our wonderful school.

Thank you to our wonderful volunteers who helped keep the children safe during our Aquarium field trip.  Pictures our posted on our Shutterfly site.  The children had a great time learning about sea stars and observing other Santa Monica Bay animals.  We learned about keeping our beaches clean as part of our We Give Back TK/kindergarten project.

Have you seen our growing sea life mural and our classroom transforming into an "ocean?"  This week we will make our sea stars and sea horses to add to our mural.  We made fish this past week with our Big Buddies, labeling the different parts of the fish.

Friday we had a special demonstration conducted by the Fire Department.  The children got to see how the firefighters would protect our school during a fire and two firetrucks, complete with ladders, drove up to the upper yard to demonstrate.  The firefighters wore their protective gear and the children had the chance to help hold a hose as they squirted water.  The water-dropping helicopter flew overhead and dropped water on the trees on our nature trail. Thanks to Eva's mom, Juliana, for taking great photos of the children and posting them on our Shutterfly site..

Manners!
Along with our Second Step lessons, this week we are officially beginning our Kings & Queens of Manners lessons.  Each child will be able to earn a crown bedazzled with jewels of different colors.  This week we will choose our crowns and the children will begin to earn their jewels.  Our official coronation ceremony will be the last day of school during our potluck end-of-the-year party and talent show (more information to come).  Help your child practice at home and we will recognize the good manners we see at school.

Jewels:
Red-Friendship and Kindness
Gold-Following the Three B's (Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible)
Pink-Listening and Working Quietly
Green-Playing Nicely on the Playground
Purple-Lunch Table Manners (including eating your lunch)
Silver-Using Polite Words (Please, Thank you, You're Welcome, Excuse Me
Blue-Following Carpet Time Manners

You have all received the spelling words to practice for our annual Spellcheck fundraiser.  Please help your child to practice for this spelling test, writing the words.  The test will be first thing Friday morning and will be corrected by parent volunteers.  The words are sight words for both TK and K based on our Benchmark reading series.  We have been working on these words during language arts in our workbooks, writing and using Lexia.

We will be completing our Fairy Tale books this week and the children have been doing an amazing job illustrating their books.  Many children are reading their own books!  We are also hard at work on our sea life research projects.  It has been helpful to have extra adult help so the children get one-to-one help as they learn about their chosen sea life animal. 

We are observing our caterpillars as they grow and are awaiting the formation of their chrysalis'.  We have been learning about butterflies and moths during science.  This week in science we will conduct engineering experiments.


Our Schedule:
Monday:  Big Buddies
Tuesday:  Speech & Language
Wednesday:  Let's Find Out! magazine, Yoga, Council, P.E.
Thursday:  Art Trek, Library
Friday:  Spellcheck, Homework Review, Sharing, Science, P.E.

Happy Mother's Day!
Mrs. W.